Premier League, Leicester relegated to the Championship – Corriere.it

It happens in football as in life to fall, but the beauty is then enclosed in the ascent. In England, despite the 2-1 draw against West Ham, Leicester were relegated to the Championship, the English Serie B. It all happens seven years after that wonderful and magical 2016, when this team that in its history had never won anything, found itself higher than all to conquer something unthinkable, the Premier League. Our Claudio Ranieri was on the bench, today at Cagliari with the same passion and serenity as then, who amazed everyone and silenced the skeptics, day after day. Victory after victory, he achieved what no one on the eve of that Premier would have ever imagined. He won acclaim and sympathy in every corner of the Kingdom, snatching applause from much richer and much more quoted rivals.

Of that stratospheric group there are no more Ranieri, but above all players like Mahrez, Kante, Schmeichel and Morgan said goodbye over time. Just to name a few. All except Amartey and especially Vardy, the other great symbol of that Premier League, which with the sound of goals overturned the history of football in the homeland where football took its first steps. A worker who became a millionaire. An atypical footballer who became a legend. Jamie departed from Championship side Leicester in 2012, guiding the team to the title four years later. And now who knows if the 36-year-old will take the team back on his shoulders to bring it back to the Premier League.

A demotion doesn’t erase any of the good things (indeed, wonderful) been made in recent years. He just leaves a little bitterness in the mouth and sadness in knowing that it happened right at Leicester. There are those who believe that the Premier League won seven years ago was one of the greatest feats in the history of sport. After that title, the English club managed to obtain various satisfactions, such as reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League in 2017, winning the FA Cup in 2021 and the Community Shield in the same year. He played in the Europa League and reached the semi-finals of the Conference, giving his fans an unknown dimension until recently.
But the year after that triumph, in 2017, Ranieri was even sacked.

But the greatest tragedy for the Foxes was the death, on October 27, 2018, of the president. The wealthy Thai businessman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, as usual, left King Power Stadium by helicopter that day to return to his home in London. But the helicopter crashed a few minutes after take-off about 200 meters from the place of departure. The rear propeller went out of control causing the vehicle to lose stability. It starts whirling through the air and then crashes to the ground in the nearby parking lot in what was described as a ball of fire. And it all happened at the end of the match against West Ham, the same opponent as today. Because sometimes fate can be so mocking as to slap you and leave you lifeless. But Leicester also knew how to get up from that great tragedy. Today the relegation to the Championship, another opportunity to show that he can react.